


The kids are alright

by redraspberrycats



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Bonding, Cake Making, Gen, M/M, a formal apology to everyone who reads something of mine and wants to read more, apparently i only post one fic per fandom oop, the main focus is perry and vanessa vibing, there isnt actually much perry and heinz in this one folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:02:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28461321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redraspberrycats/pseuds/redraspberrycats
Summary: For the perryshmirtz gift exchange 2020! My person wanted something fluffy that featured perry and vanessa bonding, so i went for a burthday fic where they make a cake for heinz!
Relationships: Heinz Doofenshmirtz/Perry the Platypus, Vanessa Doofenshmirtz & Perry the Platypus
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41
Collections: Perryshmirtz Secret Santa 2020





	The kids are alright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WinryWeiss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinryWeiss/gifts).



> Heyo, i know this is a few days past christmas please forgive me, but i had a great time writing this!! Enjoy!

Perry wakes up at 7a.m. on the dot, glad for once for his ability to police his sleep schedule from years of secret agent training. He takes a few minutes to bask in the warm, contented peacefulness of the morning. Heinz was wrapped around him like a koala bear, snoring away near Perry's shoulder. When Perry had just moved in (only a little over a month ago, now) Heinz had been self conscious about his sleep cuddling tendencies. But Perry was perfectly hapoy to be a teddy bear, and was quick to reassure his partner of it. 

Unfortunately, though, he couldn't be in two places at once, and he had things to do today. Namely, things to do for Heinz; it was his birthday, and Perry wanted to make the day nice for him, even if his past birthday experience had been… well, pretty terrible, to put it mildly. Maybe especially because of that, really. So, reluctantly, he lifts Heinz's head to place it with care on the pillow near his shoulder. He lays his partner's arm next to his head. He untangles their legs, with the patience of someone who has done this several times before. Finally, Perry deposits a careful kiss on Heinz's forehead and tiptoes out of the room, making sure to not hold the door open long. Heinz is very sensitive to light in the mornings, and Vanessa is already up and about getting ready for her day. 

Walking down the hall toward the kitchen, he spots her already there, eating breakfast, though thankfully she seems nearly done. He's a solitary creature in the mornings, and would like to have the kitchen for himself to make Heinz breakfast in bed. That, and… to tell the truth, he's never quite sure what to say to her. It's only gotten worse since moving in: does she think he's going to try and assert himself as a parent? Does she think he's going to try to be 'cool' and gain her favor? Should he be doing either of those things? Mostly, he tries to stay neutral and be as kind as he can without infringing on either territory. 

Vanessa nods at him as he steps through the doorway, and he signs a short greeting back. "Good morning. Already heading out yo see Candace?" She smiles lightly in anticipation and nods again, more cheery this time. 

"Yep! We've got a whole day planned." As unaffected and casual as Vanessa likes to appear, she really does like Candace, and looking forward to a day full of time spent with her seems to brighten her demeanor. 

Perry smiles in response. The kids are alright. "Good, I'm sure you'll have fun." She is slinging her purse over her shoulder and on her way out the door before he remembers he has something else to say, and he nearly trips over himself catching up to tap her on the shoulder. In theory, he has decades of experience being calm and collected under his belt, but in practice, sometimes a flustered mind and the sleepiness of having just gotten up get the better of him. "And you remember what the date is, right? You remember the plan and have your list?" He signs when she turns around.

Vanessa rolls her eyes, but her posture is relaxed and open. "Yes, I know. Have a little faith in me, huh?" Perry rolls his eyes back, smiling all the while, and waves her off. With that, she turns and heads out, leaving Perry alone with his thoughts, and the task of making French Toast for Heinz and himself. 

The thing is, Perry has enlisted Vanessa to help him make a birthday cake for her dad today, and while he's excited he's also… worried. Just a bit. Maybe it's just his overly analytical mind getting to him, but he just wants to be sure that Heinz will react positively, and he isn't. Perry likes to think he knows Heinz pretty well. Even before they were partners, they were nemeses, and that requires a pretty solid understanding of someone's actions, motivations, and internal dialogue. But birthdays have always been a bit of a difficult topic for Heinz. When Perry asked, he completely vetoed the concept of a gathering bigger than a few people, and was a bit touch and go about gifts in general. He'd rarely gotten one that wasn't a trick or a let down, and he'd never gotten one on his birthday, period. He was, understandably, a bit wary. So instead, Perry had elected a compromise -- the cake he and Vanessa were going to make as a surprise. Heinz did have a sweet tooth, after all.

Enough about that, though. Perry shook himself out of his overthinking reverie; it was a bad habit, and one he needed to work on in day to day life. To help keep his mind off it, he gathered the things he would need for breakfast from around the kitchen, as comfortable in it as he was in his old home. Eggs and milk from the fridge, check. Cinnamon and bread from the cupboard near the door, check. A bowl, a whisk, and a pan from the cupboards next to the fridge, also check. Perry smiled softly to himself, alone in the kitchen. There was something soothing about making a meal he had made a hundred times before, knowing it would turn out exactly as expected.

Half an hour later, French toast prepared and on a tray with glasses of milk, Perry walked back into his and Heinz's shared bedroom. In the time he'd been gone, Heinz had curled himself around Perry's pillow, and looked no closer to waking up. He set the tray of food down on the bed and went to pepper little kisses all over his partner's face. Heinz sat up, bleary eyed but grinning softly, and said "Perry the Platypus, you know you can just shake me awake, or set an alarm." They had this conversation every day.

"And miss out on kissing you as much as I want? I don't think so." Perry teased, moving his hands a bit slower so Heinz could follow along in his sleepy state. The other man only grinned wider at that, blushing terribly. He had always been bad at responding to direct compliments, and now was no exception, even if this was one he heard every morning. Hopefully, with more time, he would get used to it. 

"Anyway, you feeling hungry?" Perry asked, gesturing to the food still sitting on the nightstand. "Made you French Toast. It's a special day, after all."

"Oh, Perry the Platypus, you didn't need to!" Heinz gasped, entirely focused on his breakfast. "And French Toast, you remembered! Oh, it reminds me of that time with the bananas and the snakes… do you remember that one? So slippery." He shivered to himself, already completely caught up in his mini monologue to himself. Perry wasn't sure what his face looked like at the moment, but it was surely something disgustingly fond. His partner was just so endearing, it was hard not to get goo-goo eyes around him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heinz and Perry spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon just having a lazy day in, a feat considerably harder for Perry than for Heinz. They stayed in bed cuddling and napping and otherwise canoodling for a good hour or two, and then moved to do mostly the same (with some added movies played in the background, for variety) on the couch. 

It hit 3pm by the time Heinz remembered he had some errands to run -- ones he really only remembered because Perry reminded him of them. So with a little bit of whining and a lot of promises to be home before dinner, he left the building just five minutes before Vanessa entered it again with the ingredients for a cake. Everything was going according to plan; Perry breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Perry." Vanessa greeted him at the front door, where he had walked over to open the door for her. Her arms were laden with grocery bags and things she and Candace had gotten at the mall. She put it all down on the kitchen counter and stood with her arms crossed, eyebrow raised. "You ready to do this thing?" 

"You bet!" He signed, hands moving in fast, jerky motions. "Do you want to put away your shopping while I separate the ingredients and put away the rest of the groceries?" Despite his trepidation from earlier, he was actually excited about this, and in an energized mood from all the relaxing he'd done up until this point. Vanessa agreed with him, and a companionable silence descended on the house as the two went about their individual tasks. Neither of them were chatterboxes, really, and Perry still wasn't the best at having conversations with her in the first place. What do you even say to a teenage girl? 

He tried engaging with her once everything had been set up and she was measuring the first ingredients into a bowl. "So, did you and Candace have a good day?" 

"Huh? Oh, yeah we did. I mean, we started out at the mall, but kinda ended up getting sucked into some sort of sentient licorice tornado?"

"Oh, the boys' doing, I bet." He huffed a laugh. He did love those boys, but they had a particular talent for throwing Candace off course. It was a two way street, though. Candace did as much throwing herself off course as they did.

She chuckled. "Yeah, it was them." 

And now the conversation was dead again. Perry began mixing the dry ingredients in a separate bowl while he tried to think of something else to say, resolving to try again. "Are you still seeing Johnny?" He had to bump her with his elbow to get her attention before he could sign out the question. 

She made a face and turned back to what she was doing. "Uh, yeah, no. Definitely not. Turned out he was kinda lame." She glanced over to see if Perry was going to respond.

Okay, progress. "Lame? How so?" 

Vanessa shrugged, not seeming too bothered for someone discussing their recent breakup. "Just didn't care enough. Like, he's my punk rock boyfriend, I get that he's supposed to not care about things, but he didn't not care about the things I did, and did care about the things I didn't care about, and so it just didn't work, you know?" Perry nodded uncertainly. Youth culture was… not in his repertoire of things he understood. He hadn't really understood it when he was a teen, so doing it now was just that much further out of his reach.

Nevertheless, Vanessa seemed to appreciate the effort, which was good? She didn't say anything more, though, so they were again at a dead end. 

Perry let the silence longer for the next ten minutes, only saying things when he needed to ask her for something or give instructions. Finally, the batter had been all made and the cake put in the oven, which had been preheating while they mixed. After that, they had a while to wait, so they relocated to the living room and sat on the couch, Vanessa on her phone and Perry waffling between reading or trying to start another conversation. He had just decided to hell with it and was going to pick up a book when Vanessa spoke up herself.

"Hey, Perry… this is kinda weird, but… " She was embarrassed, of all things, shifting on the couch and making sure not to meet his eyes. "Thanks for, you know, looking out for my dad and all. He's a lot happier with you around." Immediately, Perry's heart melted. He couldn't help it, she'd hit his soft spot. He was fast coming to the realization that at the end of the day, she was still just a kid, and there was nothing to be afraid of anyway. As much anxiety as he gave himself over their interactions, nothing he did registered as bad in her mind. She just… liked him. As a person. What a crazy thought. 

This was his moment to know for sure, though. Hesitantly, knowing his hands were in his field of vision, he signed "Are you happier with me around, too?" Yes it was probably fine, but her opinion was important to him! Luckily, she wasted no time in answering.

"Yeah, 'course. I think you're alright." Her words were casual, but everything else about her demeanor was absolutely not, and that's how Perry knew she meant what she said.

"Thank god," he replied, trying to lighten the mood. "I think you're alright, too. I'd hate to be the only one." It worked. She laughed for a second, made more quiet by her discomfort with this kind of topic, and shifted on the couch so their shoulders were touching. 

A final thought occurred to him. "Heinz is going to like the cake, right?" He asked her.

"Yeah," she assured him without hesitation. "He'll love it."


End file.
